Page 48 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2021

Seasonal Jobs
DEREK BROOKS, FNVS
April
I think this is about the busiest month of the year in the garden, allotment, or in the greenhouse as sowing and planting are at their peak.
All plants sown in the greenhouse need hardening off in a cold frame before planting. I have several frames and they are all dismantled when not in use and kept behind the greenhouse and shed. Now is the time to fix them up again and put them in position ready for use.
If you haven’t got a greenhouse, most seeds can be sown outdoors, but there are some that I start off in pots or cell trays in the greenhouse.
If you are sowing outdoors, rake the
soil as fine as you can and rake in some general fertiliser such as Growmore or fish, blood and bone. Seeds that I always sow outdoors are turnips, swedes, radish and salad onions. They are sown thinly in shallow drills and thinned out in stages as they grow to their final positions. Carrots and parsnips can also be sown like this but because they are long roots I sow them in tubes, drums
or buckets. I have some tall drums filled with old compost in which I make bore holes and fill them with sieved compost. Seeds are sown three or four per station and thinned
to one when they germinate. I use these for long carrots. I also grow long carrots and parsnips in tubes made from builders damp proof material stood in buckets. I grow short carrots in small drums or buckets containing bore holes.
Other crops that can be sown outdoors now in drills are lettuce, kohl Rabi, beetroot, rocket and spinach. However, I prefer to sow these in the greenhouse in cell trays, three
or four per cell and thinned to one as for carrots. Brassicas (cabbages, cauliflowers, and Brussel sprouts) can also be sown in drills. Peas and broad beans can also be sown but these are large enough to space
Chrysanthas in cold greenhouse
Tomatoes in bottomless pots on grow bags
out, 6 inches (15 cm.) apart for peas and 9 inches (22.5 cm.) apart for beans. However I always sow the Brassicas in 3 inch (7.5 cm.) pots three or four per pot and peas singly in small pots (drinking cups) in the greenhouse. None of these seeds need the extra heat
of a propagator so just leave them on the staging or a shelf.
Now, there are crops that won’t stand any frost. These are runner and French beans (dwarf and climbing), marrows, courgettes, pumpkins, squashes and sweet corn. They can all be sown outdoors and I do so for dwarf French beans but not till May. The
rest I sow this month, singly in small pots in a propagator or on a warming bench in the greenhouse. If you have no extra heat, you can still sow them but they will obviously take longer to germinate.
So much for sowing but what vegetables can we plant? I said last month that you could start planting potatoes and I told you how I plant them. April, though, is the main month for planting them, starting with the earlies and the main crops towards the end of the month. I also plant my onion sets this month but I plant them in three and a half inch (9 cm.) pots in the greenhouse. Garlic and asparagus can also be planted. I described the planting of asparagus last month.
If you sowed your onions and leeks early in the year they may be ready for planting now. Also if you sowed your tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and aubergines in the greenhouse in February they should be ready for planting in their final positions. If sowed later and they are still in small pots they will
48 Simply Vegetables
Tubes for growing parsnips
Winter onions harvested
CORRECTION – Seasonal Jobs March
In the last edition of the magazine (Volume 27 Part 1 Winter 2020/21) on page 49 the image captioned ‘Annual seeds germinating’ should read ‘Chrysanth cuttings’, and the opposite image on page 48 should read ‘Annual seeds germinating’. Thank you Derek for bringing this to our attention.